Business

This archive collects stories about businesses — from startups and local enterprises to multinational corporations — taking meaningful action on social, environmental, and economic challenges. These reports highlight moments when commerce and accountability intersect in constructive ways.

A fossil fuel-free ammonia plant at the Kenya Nut Company, for article on green ammonia fertilizer

The Kenya Nut Company to become world’s first farm to produce fossil-free fertilizer on site

Green ammonia is about to be made on a working farm for the first time anywhere, at a macadamia operation outside Nairobi producing one ton per day. The plant runs on solar power, splitting water for hydrogen and pulling nitrogen from the air — skipping the natural gas that fertilizer production has depended on for over a century. That matters because the average bag of fertilizer in sub-Saharan Africa travels 10,000 kilometers to reach a farm, leaving growers exposed to every global price shock. Built by U.S. startup Talus Renewables, the system is small enough for a single farm and designed for places where supply chains are long and fragile. If it works, it offers a glimpse of food systems that are both cleaner and more self-reliant.

Empty pedestrian-friendly city street with protected bike lanes for an article about Vision Zero traffic fatalities, for article on Bangladesh lithium battery

Bangladesh to begin producing lithium batteries and electric vehicles to cut emissions

Bangladesh’s push to manufacture lithium-ion batteries domestically is a meaningful step toward owning its clean energy future, not just participating in it. The new battery plant is designed to supply the core component for local electric vehicle assembly — a deliberate strategy to build an entire EV industry from the inside out. The real caveat: with fossil fuels dominating Bangladesh’s electricity grid, switching to EVs risks shifting emissions upstream rather than eliminating them. Still, research shows that EVs get cleaner automatically as grids improve — making early investment a bet worth placing.

Offshore wind farm, for article on floating offshore wind farm, for article on offshore wind auction

World’s new largest offshore wind farm opens in Norway

Floating offshore wind just powered an oil rig for the first time — Norway’s Hywind Tampen now supplies roughly 35% of the annual electricity for five North Sea platforms, cutting around 200,000 tons of CO2 emissions each year. Its 11 turbines float in deep water where fixed-bottom towers can’t reach, and the cost per megawatt came in about 35% lower than its 2017 predecessor, Hywind Scotland. Norwegian suppliers won 60% of the contracts, turning decades of offshore oil expertise into a new green industry at home. The deeper hope: floating wind could eventually unlock more than 80% of the world’s offshore wind potential — energy reserves that were, until recently, simply out of reach.

Wind turbine, for article on offshore wind turbine

World’s largest wind turbine is now fully operational and connected off coast of China

A single wind turbine off China’s Fujian coast can now power roughly 36,000 homes — and it’s the largest ever connected to a grid. The MySE 16-260 stretches 260 meters across, wider than the Eiffel Tower is tall, with each rotation generating up to 34.2 kilowatt-hours of clean electricity. It’s built to withstand winds of 287 km/h, which matters in a stretch of sea where near-gale conditions blow more than 200 days a year. An 18-megawatt machine is already in the works, hinting at how fast this ceiling keeps rising. Each leap in turbine size makes offshore wind cheaper and more credible as a backbone of the clean energy transition worldwide.